How To Decompartmentalize Your Health

The instruction manual you didn’t know you needed

In “The Technology That Can Heal All Disease” I introduced what I call Holistic Intelligence™, and the idea that humanity is the perfect technology for healing. In this piece I want to get a little more practical so you can start applying these concepts to your own healing.

When I worked in conventional medicine I saw a lot of symptom resolution, but I didn’t see a lot of healing- and there is a big difference between symptom resolution, which is usually temporary and healing, which is completely transformational.

The conventional medical system has done a great job of compartmentalizing our health. When we’re experiencing a physical ailment it’s normal to see a primary care provider, the appropriate specialist, a chiropractor, bodyworker, etc. When we’re experiencing mental or emotional distress, we consult with a therapist or a psychiatrist. When we’re in spiritual crisis, we’re unlikely to have our needs met within the conventional system, but there are coaches, counselors, energy workers, shamanic practitioners and more who can guide us.

I am well aware that this is a generalization, and that there are a lot of providers that address more than one quadrant through their work. When I worked in the conventional system, I addressed all four quadrants of health as best I could given the time constraints, and there is a lot of nuance to how different practitioners define their scope and the boundaries of the whole. But when discussing systemic issues I do find it necessary to zoom out and look at generalized patterns.

The conventional western medical system itself is designed to compartmentalize our health. By design, it separates physical, mental, emotional and spiritual care. Specialization is valued and monetarily rewarded, so the system does not incentivize a holistic orientation. This is great when you need a brain surgeon, but in most cases of illness and dis-ease, this is a huge disservice. It keeps us running from provider to provider with the illusion that we have a long list of things to heal, when in fact it’s the same dis-ease, expressing itself differently through the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual quadrants of our health. In this wild goose chase, we can easily forget that these four quadrants are parts of the same whole and they cannot be separated from each other. Fortunately our nervous and endocrine systems always remember, and they remain unbreakable threads of connectivity between the four quadrants.

I do think modern medical thought is becoming more aware of the holistic nature of health, and I love seeing more doctors talk about topics like depression as an inflammatory condition, the gut-brain connection, and the relationship between autism and telepathy, but the medical system, healthcare organizations, insurance providers and employers have definitely not caught up.

The conventional medical paradigm continues to compartmentalize our health and limit our healing potential.

Here’s what this often looks like in my practice …

A patient is struggling with a physical ailment. She goes to a primary care provider, who does some lab work and then refers her to a specialist. The specialist prescribes a medication, which she takes reluctantly, and it does help control the symptoms. She’s happy to feel better but conflicted about taking a medication. A few months later some unexpected changes in her life create stress and anxiety. The original symptoms come back, despite the medication. The specialist recommends increasing the dose of the medication and refers the patient to a psychiatrist. The dose increase is not effective and the psychiatrist recommends an anti-anxiety medication and refers her to a therapist. She starts therapy, but does not want to take another medication so she also starts working with an acupuncturist, a wellness coach and an energy worker. She much prefers these alternative treatments and something seems to be helping but she’s not sure if it’s the acupuncture, the Chinese herbs, the supplements the wellness coach recommended or the energy work. She wants to get off the medication but she’s scared to because it was helpful. The therapist addresses her fear but encourages her to follow up with the prescribing doctor before discontinuing the medication. The doctor strongly encourages her to stay on the medication because her symptoms are not managed, and while it resolved her symptoms temporarily in the past, it is not congruent with what she believes about her health (mental), it’s contributing to fear, anxiety and shame (emotional), and it’s not supporting her overall health goals (spiritual).

So even when the prescribed treatment was supporting her physically, it was not supporting her mental, emotional or spiritual wellbeing. When this is the case, we may see temporary symptom resolution but sustainable healing is impossible. The compartmentalization of the four dimensions of health is a direct obstacle to healing. We end up chasing dis-ease and dysfunction from one quadrant of our experience to the next for years and years- until one day we realize that it’s all connected.

I’ll share more about this in my free Holistic Intelligence™ class Jan 15 and 23rd so please join me if you want to go deeper, because I am just scratching the surface here.

The good news is that you don’t need the system to change to get the care you deserve. You don’t need the medical system to see you as the perfected, holistic technology you are. You just need YOU to see yourself that way. And when you understand how the four quadrants work together, you can intelligently guide your care. Understanding Holistic Intelligence™ will help you discern which practitioners you work with, what interventions you pursue, while ensuring that all four quadrants are engaged and working toward the same goal. This is how we create sustainable healing and lasting change.

Here’s how to decompartmentalize your health: